University of Glasgow students have used 3-D printing techniques to build a replica of James Watt’s Boulton-Watt steam engine, to coincide with the university’s 200th anniversary.

Members of the School of Engineering’s JetX student society have spent five months putting together a 3-D printed scale model that is 1m long and consists
of more than 800 parts.

The design builds upon the earlier adaptation of Oliver Smith’s drawing for a model-sized beam engine (in Model Engineer volumes 121-122) by John Fall.

The result is the largest additively manufactured working model of this design; it features over 150 3-D printed components that took 845hr of printing and consumed more than 2.2km of printing filament.

The model, which will be on display at the university library until the end of the year, forms part of a public exhibition that explores James Watt’s life, achievements and legacy.

He was working as an instrument-maker at the University of Glasgow when, in 1765, he made improvements to a Newcomen steam engine, adding a separate condenser that made it vastly more efficient and ‘helped kickstart the industrial revolution’.

JetX president Chris Triantafyllou said: “The past five months have been very busy but we are really pleased with the final model. The whole building process used a lot of design and prototyping practices we have learned throughout the years of developing jet engine models.”

More information on James Watt 2019 at the University of Glasgow can be found at the Web site (www.gla.ac.uk/events/jameswatt).